Unemployment

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT UNEMPLOYMENT

Demand for job training and counseling from the Verdugo Workforce Investment Board has continued to soar as unemployment rates remain around 10%, surpassing the organization’s expectations for the year with six months to go in its fiscal calendar, officials said. The board, which services job seekers in Burbank and Glendale through the Verdugo Jobs Center, has coped with the record growth in visitors by using federal stimulus funds to add support staff and fund additional training programs.

The U.S. Census Bureau will hire at least 3,000 workers in the San Fernando Valley this year, including at least 1,000 in Burbank, offering a potential boost to sagging employment figures in the region, experts said. The workers will be part of the effort to tally demographic information in the region as part of the nation’s 10-year count, bureau officials said. Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks), who announced the expected valley census hires, celebrated the potential jobs, which will pay a starting hourly wage of $17 for census takers.

The San Fernando Valley — the nation’s largest geographic nonmunicipal entity — has grown more educated and diverse in recent years as it expanded to include 1.74 million people, according to a report released this week by the U.S. Census Bureau. The report was based on the American Community Survey of 2008 and shows that the region, made up of Burbank, San Fernando, Calabasas and Los Angeles, as well as some unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County and portions of Glendale, has developed into a multicultural region, a trend that could be further amplified in the 2010 Census, experts said.

DOWNTOWN — A recovering film industry helped tamp down local unemployment rates in November, pushing the mark back toward single-digit territory, according to state figures released Friday. The unemployment rate in Glendale slid to 10.6% last month, down from 11% in October. In Burbank, the jobless rate fell to 9.9% from 10.3% over the same period, according to the state Economic Development Department. Labor market specialists attributed the gains to continued strong activity in the film industry, which continues to buoy back from the 100-day Writers Guild strike in 2007.

Local unemployment rates continued to fall in November as professional and business service sectors started to recover, state economic development officials reported Friday. The unemployment rate in Burbank fell to 9.9% last month from 10.3% in October. Glendale slid to 10.6% from 11% over the same period, according to the California Economic Development Department. In the La Crescenta-Montrose region, the unemployment rate fall from 5.8% in October to 5.6% last month. In La Cañada-Flintridge, the rate fell slightly by 0.2% to 4.5%.

Local unemployment rates fell slightly in October, even as jobless figures across Los Angeles County rose 0.2%, the state’s Economic Development Department reported Friday. The unemployment rate in Burbank was 10.3% in October, down from 10.4% the month prior, according to the report. Glendale’s unemployment rate dropped to 11%, from 11.1% in September. The jobless figure in the La Crescenta-Montrose area also declined 0.1% from September’s rate, to 5.8%, although it held steady in La Cañada Flintridge, at 4.7%, according to the department.